


The Queen of Hyperion.

by mechromanced



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, first fic I've written in a long time, i'll add more tags and characters as needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2019-10-11 16:36:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17450516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mechromanced/pseuds/mechromanced
Summary: “Whoa, what’s with the mask?”You never knew such few drunkenly slurred words would spark a conversation that would change your life forever.





	1. Weird.

It had been a shit week, to put it simply. Just four days ago you’d been thrown out of the apartment you had been living in with your now ex-partner after a heated argument over some bullshit you couldn’t even care to think about right now, because thinking about things at that moment just fucking sucked. Yesterday your car got broken into by some shitty teenagers who stole your work laptop and camera, the only two things in your car that didn’t even belong to you. As a result of this, and therefore your “lack of responsibility” or fucking whatever bullshit your boss had against you this time, an hour ago you lost your job. You’d picked up your bag, walked out the door, and headed down the road to the nearest bar, convinced you were about to spend your last decent paycheck on an ungodly amount of alcohol.

You weren’t too unfamiliar with this particular bar, it had been there through all of the other shitty experiences you’d had working at that place. You’d been enough times that the bartender, a lovely brunette woman with rough hands and kind eyes, knew pretty much exactly what you were going to get the second you stepped through the door of the dimly lit venue. After having what could almost be considered a conversation with her, starting and stopping as she served other customers and swatted away sleazy men as if they were flies on a warm day, you’d learned her name, the type of car she drives, and the town where she grew up. Valuable information, you were sure of it at the time.

The seat next to you was vacant for quite some time, however about ten minutes into your chat with Heather (the bartender and also probably your new best friend) you felt the presence of someone next to you. You moved your chair slightly further to the left in an attempt to distance yourself from the stranger while still talking to Heather. You’d completely lost track of the topic of the conversation by now, but talking to her calmed you for some reason, and she didn’t seem too unhappy with you, so you continued. Until someone else decided to join in.

“Hey there! It’s Heather, right?”

It was the man sitting next to you. His voice was loud and demanding, enough to make anyone roll their eyes and attempt to ignore. You stared at the drink in front of you to avoid looking at him. It was pretty much Heather’s job to put up with guys like this, so you decided to let her handle it. But she didn’t. A few seconds passed and she hadn’t said a thing. You slowly looked up at her and she was just staring at him, confused. Naturally, your eyes wandered to the right. You could now see his face and it all made sense.

“Whoa, what’s with the mask?” You exclaimed, looking directly at him. His face was, well, not really his face. It was a mask, but you couldn’t figure out much else about it. His eyes met yours and he smiled slightly, seemingly forgetting that he had ever tried to speak to Heather at all. After a few more seconds of silence and awkward eye contact, you spoke again. “I asked you a question!”

“Oh… I, uh…” He stuttered around his words, a vast departure from his previous tone. From the strange way he was acting, you were almost convinced it was his first day on Earth. “It’s a fashion statement, really. No reason.”

By this point in time, Heather had completely abandoned you and was serving other customers, which was fair enough because it was, you know, her job. You weren’t too offended by her leaving you to deal with things yourself. If you were her, you know you’d have done the same thing. You shrugged and smiled softly, almost giggling to yourself. This guy was weird. Really weird. “Weird fashion statement.” You uttered under your breath. “Who even are you? What do you do?”

“Me? Never been asked that one before. Where I’m from, people know exactly who I am.” He smirked, somehow making you instantly uncomfortable. “I’m Jack. Y’know, I’m not from here, pumpkin. But where I’m from, I’m a pretty big deal, alright? So stop asking questions. I wanna know about you.”

You were scared. This guy went from weird to really fucking creepy in the span of a few seconds. If you knew any better you’d have gotten up and walked away right there and then, but you didn’t. You had so many questions. How was this guy a big deal? Where was he from? This was so weird. Eventually, you realised that he had indirectly asked you about yourself, so you finally spoke.

“I’m, well…” You told him your name. And your age. And eventually, you told him exactly everything that had gone wrong for you between the start of the week and now. He didn’t interrupt you, he just looked at you with a kind of blank expression before he finally spoke.

“Wow, that sucks for you. It really does.” His hand settled on your thigh, making you flinch slightly, but you didn’t do anything about it besides smile nervously. “If it makes you feel any better, my girlfriend died last week.”

“Really?” You had no idea how to respond to that. “That’s… I’m sorry?”

“Yeah, murdered. A bunch of bandits killed her. Horrible stuff, really.” He sighed, visibly upset over retelling such a tragic event. You were so conflicted. Bandits? This guy was either out of his mind, or it really was his first day on Earth. “Wait, sorry. I keep forgetting I’m on Earth. Things are different here, right? Much tamer.” So it was his first day on Earth. Got it.

“Where…” You were unsure of whether asking questions was a good idea or not. “I’m sorry if this is a rude thing to ask, but where are you from, exactly?”

“Not here. That’s all you have to know.” He clearly did not like answering questions. You did not care.

“No, bullshit!” You tried your best at a half-joking tone but ended up just sounding plain angry. “You walk into this bar, tell me your girlfriend got killed by bandits, and that it’s literally your first day on Earth, but you won’t tell me where the fuck you’re from? You’re full of shit.” A smile crept across your lips as you tried to wordlessly apologise for becoming so angry.

“You really want to know where I’m from, lady?” He grabbed your wrist so tightly you feared it’d break, and you froze completely. He must have noticed the fear in your eyes as he loosened his grip on your wrist and sighed. “Should we take this outside? I mean, this place is a shithole. Let’s get out of here.”

With that, you stood up and grabbed your bag, waved goodbye to Heather, and slowly followed Jack out of the bar, with no idea what you had just gotten yourself into.


	2. Normal.

“I’m sorry, pumpkin. I didn’t mean to get so rude back there.” Jack broke the silence between the both of you. You had been walking next to him for a few minutes now, unsure of where he was planning on taking you. After the events of the past week, nothing he could do to you could be worse than what you had already done to yourself, so you allowed yourself to trust in him as you walked alongside one another. It was getting late, and street lights lit your only path through the town, so you had some idea of what was ahead of you. “I get like that when I’m stressed sometimes. It won’t happen again.”

If you had a dollar for every time a man had told you that it won’t happen again you were certain you’d be the richest woman alive, but you didn’t say anything in fear of angering him once more.

“I have a feeling you’re not going to ask again, so I guess I’ll just tell you.” From the tone of his voice, you could tell he was being at least somewhat apologetic. “I’m from another planet. I know it sounds fucking crazy, but just hear me out.” He looked at you for some kind of sign that you were actually going to listen to him.

“I’m listening.” You spoke softly, your voice shaking ever so slightly.

“I run a company called Hyperion. We operate mostly on a space-station kinda thing called Helios that orbits a planet named Pandora. Pandora is a fucking shithole. It’s violent and gruesome and full of bandits, brainless creatures who’ll kill anything they can. Hyperion is trying to restore some kind of order to Pandora. The problem is, there’s a lot of people trying to stop us.”

“Why are they trying to stop you?” You asked before you could stop yourself from asking questions. He didn’t seem to mind.

“I really don’t know. That’s why I’m here.” He stopped walking and turned to face you. He was slightly taller than you, so you tilted your head upwards slightly to look at him. “Earth seems so… normal. I knew I had to understand what a normal planet was like before I tried to fix Pandora.”

You opened your mouth to object to the fact that Earth was in any way normal, but compared to Pandora, and whatever things Jack had seen happen there, Earth seemed very normal.

“What I’m saying is… I need your help.” He grabbed your hands from your sides and held them in his. “You can help me. You can help Hyperion. You understand what it’s like to be normal. You can help us fix Pandora.” Your eyes met and he smiled reassuringly. 

“What are you saying?” You were confused but intrigued by his offer. Confused by how you could help him fix an entire planet, but intrigued by his offer to take you anywhere but here.

“What I’m saying is we’ll run the company together! We’ll be the King and Queen of Hyperion! The saviours of Pandora!” He laughed excitedly as he spoke, causing you to smile. “I know this sounds fucking crazy, but I can promise you a better life than the one you’ll live down here. You just have to trust me.”

You were completely sold on his offer. It was ridiculous, you knew, but it was all you had left. Your life had fallen apart and at this point, there was nobody on Earth who’d miss you anyways.

“I trust you, Jack.” You smiled, excited. “What are we waiting for?”

“One last question, how do you feel about teleportation? Because that’s how I got here and it’s the easiest way to get us back to Helios. I can teleport us there right now but I need your permission. Don’t ask why.” His question felt so out of the blue that you were confused at first, but then you realised there wasn’t really any other way he could have gotten here.

“Just get me off this boring, normal planet already.” You sighed sarcastically.

“Whatever you say, pumpkin.”


	3. Anger, Regret, and Other Fun Emotions.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first few weeks of a new job never go as expected. Then again, what exactly did you expect?

Of all of the impulsive and probably regrettable decisions you’ve made in your life, this one was the biggest, there was no doubt about that. Your last seconds on Earth were spent wondering what the hell to expect from this. It’s not every day that you meet some weird guy in a bar who claims he’s from another planet, then insists he needs you to abandon your life on Earth and go teleport to some weird space station thing to help him restore order to a planet. Pretty weird stuff. As for living on Helios, things had been going pretty smoothly. You had your own office, your own awesome weapons, and you had control of things for once. One thing you weren’t so sure of was the people around there. 

Jack was nice enough, to you at least. You had seen him shoot a few employees over very minor inconveniences, and he often reminded you that you had every right to do the same, as you were as high up in the company as him as far as they were concerned. This scared the shit out of you. At first, you felt overwhelmed by your newly obtained power, the right to end lives as you saw fit, but as you settled into your new life you became slightly more uneasy at the thought of even threatening such things.

Some of the employees - your employees, as far as they were concerned - were less welcoming of you than others. Some would mock you as you walked to and from meetings, whispering some kind of nonsensical gossip to their friends about how Jack only kept you around because he finds you attractive, or because he knows you’re easy to manipulate because you have no idea how things work around here, or whatever else they could think of. You’d told yourself they only said that stuff because they were jealous of you or something, but occasionally some of the bullshit they made up would get to you.

There was one employee, however, who’d had the nerve to say it to your face. As you were walking back to your office to finalise some paperwork, you heard some more of the mockery that you were so familiar with.

“Hey look, it’s Jack’s pet.” A male voice not-so-discreetly teased, and another voice chuckled in response. You felt anger and frustration building within you, and you hadn’t walked another step before he spoke again. “Hey, what even is your name? What’s your deal, exactly?”

You stopped dead in your tracks. Mockery was something you were used to, but nobody had directly called you out like this before. You slowly turned around to face him, and as you did you heard his friend whisper to him that he had ‘really fucked up, dude’ and that you were ‘probably super pissed off’. You were. Slowly you walked towards him, and his friend backed away slowly, before running away as fast as he could. You laughed softly.

“Seems that you’re a bit braver than your friend over there, aren’t you?” You smiled sweetly, not giving him time to respond before grabbing his shirt by the collar and pinning him against the wall. He gasped slightly, clearly not expecting this. You didn’t really expect you’d be doing this either. “How about you tell me your name, huh? What’s your deal, exactly?” You had no clue where your words were coming from. It wasn’t like you to take control of a situation, or stand up for yourself like this. You had no idea, but it felt right. It felt good. 

He stumbled over his words for a few seconds, and the hand of yours that wasn’t holding him against the wall had made its way to your side to grab your pistol, then holding it just under his chin. You smiled until he finally answered your question.

“I… It’s Rhys! I’m Rhys!” Unsurprisingly, he seemed quite panicked by the gun you were currently holding to him. “I’m… I’m sorry!”

“Now tell me, Rhys…” You leaned in closer to him, your forehead resting against his. Your pistol was now pressed against his temple, and he shivered slightly from the coldness of the metal against his skin. “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you right now.”

“I don’t know, I’m sorry!” You could hear the fear in his voice, and see it in his eyes. “I’m sorry, okay!” Your grip on his shirt loosened and you lowered your gun back down to your side. As you backed away from him, the fear in his eyes remained and he stepped out of your way, briskly walking in the direction that his friend had run in fear earlier.

It took a few minutes for the realisation of what you had done finally hit you, and you soon found yourself sat in the corner of your office with your head in your hands. You went over the short conversation you just had over and over again in your head, you could still feel your gun in your hands and the anger burning within you. You had never questioned your own power or morals like this. Would you have killed him, really? You were sure you wouldn’t have, the gun and the threats were just in self-defence! You were threatened… right? 

Jack walked into your office a few minutes later, only to see your head in your hands as you sobbed softly, and your gun thrown halfway across the room - you were trying to get it as far away from you as possible. You looked up at him with sore eyes and tear-stained cheeks and you wanted to apologise right there and then for being so pathetic. Surely if you weren’t strong enough to even threaten to shoot someone, you wouldn’t be able to deal with your responsibilities up here. 

But he didn’t yell at you. You observed his face closely, searching for any signs of disappointment, or anger. He didn’t look like that at all. Instead, he looked worried.

“Oh no, no…” He walked over to you and sat down in front of you. His hand gently wiped a tear from your cheek and you sniffled softly. “Who hurt you? C’mon, tell me, pumpkin. Who was it?”

You failed to respond with anything other than more sniffles and sobs. He stood up and took your hand, encouraging you to do the same. Your legs were shaking but you managed to rely on him to keep you standing. You wrapped your arms around him and rested your head on his shoulder, trying to find some form of comfort in him. As your breathing calmed down slightly, he returned the hug, awkwardly wrapping his arms around your waist.

“I-I’m sorry… I’m so pathetic…” You stuttered and sniffled. “Nobody hurt me… I just did something really dumb, and it scared me…”

Venting to him seemed like the only thing you could do to calm yourself right now.

“People around here make fun of me… a lot… I-I don’t know why…” You slowly let go of him and stepped back, looking at him to tell if he was listening or not. You were sure he was, which for some reason you didn’t expect. “Today though… I couldn’t take it anymore, I got really mad at this guy and I put my gun to his head and I feel really bad about it!” 

“Oh, oh no…” One of his hands made it’s way up to your hair, gently combing his fingers through it, while his other remained around your waist. “Babygirl, I’ll ask you again, who hurt you?”

“His name… I think it was Rhys…” Through muffled sobs and sharp breaths, you managed to tell him all you knew. “I know which direction he went, he-”

“I’m pretty sure I know the Rhys you’re on about here.” Jack let go of your waist and moved back slightly, but not before making sure you weren’t still relying on his support to stand up. “Robot arm, weird eye? Dumb haircut?”

You giggled at his oddly accurate description before gently nodding your head in agreement.

“Consider him dealt with.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while. I started writing this chapter a while ago, forgot about it, realised how much I enjoyed writing this fic, and then finally finished the chapter. Hope you enjoy! Comments are always appreciated <3


	4. Misunderstandings.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Overburdened by guilt, you desperately try to figure out how to protect Rhys from whatever Jack plans on doing to him.

“Good morning all, just a friendly reminder that disrespecting your superiors in any way can and will result in your torturously slow and painful death!”

You were awoken by the message broadcast across Helios, spoken by none other than Jack himself. After the events of the day prior, and his surprisingly understanding reaction to your near emotional breakdown over realising you had the power to end lives without any consequence, you were feeling rather fragile. You were certain that Jack was the most unpredictable person you had ever met. One minute he’d be cold and distant, focused on his work and giving orders to your staff. The next he’d be more interested in you than ever, asking personal questions and letting you know just how much he appreciates working with you. Sometimes it felt like he was about to ask you out, other times it felt like he was about to throw you out an airlock. You just never knew.

Ever since you’d first arrived on Helios, Jack had been telling you all about Pandora, the planet which Helios was in orbit around. You now knew all about the bandits, and the vaults, and just how dangerous of a place it really was. He had promised you that with your help, Pandora could be a peaceful, orderly place.

He had a plan. There was a vault key being charged down on Pandora, in the most secure facility Hyperion had ever built. Once the key was charged, Jack said he would open the vault and use the power held within to bring peace to Pandora. You weren’t sure how exactly this plan would work, as he refused to tell you certain details surrounding the charging of the vault key - they only naturally recharge every 200 years, and the last opening of a vault was quite recent - but you were sold on the plan once he told you about the Warrior, a ‘vault monster’ that held the power to fix Pandora once and for all, controlled by whoever opens the vault. You and Jack.

Your daydream about the vault was cut short when Jack strolled into your office and put a pile of about fifty papers on your desk.

“I need these signed within the next day or so, it’s a bunch of licensing stuff from Maliwan about using their parts on our weapons. Boring stuff, I know. Sorry.”

“Wait, why do I need to sign these? Can’t you?” You really didn’t feel like spending your afternoon signing off on a bunch of stuff you didn’t even understand.

“You’re the only person besides me that’s qualified to sign off on this shit, and I’ve got other stuff I have to do,” He looked mildly annoyed at you for questioning his orders, but you were sure he meant no harm. “Like, dealing with that guy who harassed you yesterday - what was his name again?” 

Suddenly, you felt overburdened by guilt. Between your reaction yesterday and Jack’s passive-aggressive announcement earlier that morning, you were almost certain you had pretty much just ended the life of one of your workers. You had to do something, you knew you couldn’t stop Jack, but maybe you could protect Rhys somehow? All you knew was that you didn’t have much time.

“Oh, alright... I’ll get started on signing these.” You spoke as confidently as you could while desperately trying to figure out a solution to the problem you had found yourself in. You could likely find Rhys’ office using a simple company-wide database scan, then you could take the more secure and private routes down to wherever he was. 

After messily shoving the papers on your desk into the nearest drawer, you slipped out the door of your office and headed to the nearest elevator. Finding out where Rhys’ office was proved to be simple enough, you’d simply searched his name and certain keywords and all the information you needed was right there. All you had to do was avoid Jack along the way and you wouldn’t have to explain yourself. This did make you realise one thing, however. Rhys would likely not take too kindly to the woman who threatened to kill him only yesterday showing up at his office. You decided it was a good idea to figure out that one when you got there.

Your hand shakily pushed the button to open the door to Rhys’ office. Immediately, he looked up at you with fear in his eyes. Scrambling backwards on his office chair, he backed away as fast as he could, and despite your best efforts to appear non-threatening he still seemed terrified to see you in his office. Your hand made its way towards the pistol to your side and you picked it up slowly, before dropping it on the floor and taking a step forward, away from the weapon.

“I’m not here to hurt you, Rhys. I’m here to protect you.”

He stood up and stepped forward cautiously.

“I-I’m really sorry about everything I said yesterday! I was stupid and I should know better than to disrespect my superiors and-” You cut him off with soft words of reassurance, and he seemed to warm up to you a bit more. “Y-you said you’re here to protect me? From what?”

You sighed deeply and looked him in the eyes.

“I’m here to protect you from Jack.” You saw him open his mouth to respond but you didn’t give him the opportunity. “He found out about what happened yesterday, and now he’s after you. I’m your only hope of getting out of this.”

“How the hell am I going to get out of this? If Jack’s after me, I’m as good as dead already!” Every word he spoke seemed more and more panicked.

“I wish I knew, Rhys, but we have to figure something out together.” You walked over to him and held his hands gently in yours. “I don’t know you very well, but I’m sure you’re smart. You work for me as well, remember?”

A soft smile tugged at his lips and his eyes met yours.

“I’m just scared.”

“I know.”

You both were distracted by the familiar sound of office doors opening. Startled, you turned your head to look at who was outside the door. You were greeted by a familiar voice.

“What the hell are you doing with my…” Jack’s voice trailed off as he tried to figure out exactly what was happening. “Rhys, get the hell away from her!”

You clumsily stepped backwards, the fear of Jack being mad at both you and Rhys overtaking your ability to think or act clearly.

“I’m sorry!” You and Rhys said in unison. Jack laughed.

“Aw, that’s cute. How long has this been going on, huh?” Jack noticed the gun you had dropped on the floor earlier and leaned down to pick it up, before aiming it at Rhys.

“Put the gun down, it’s not like that!” You desperately tried to reason with him but you were almost certain it would be to no avail. It was hard to blame him for thinking that, though. He had walked in on you and Rhys holding each other’s hands and looking into each other’s eyes.

You were sure that both you and Rhys knew that no reasoning could be made in this situation, and your current goal was to get you and Jack out of Rhys’ office while keeping all three of you alive. Slowly, you made your way towards Jack, and as you were standing next to him you gently took the gun from him and put it back down on the floor.

“I’ll explain things later, Jack. It’s best if we leave.”

He sighed deeply and looked you in the eyes, his stare intimidating you slightly.

“Sure. Lead the way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to thank everyone who's read and commented on this fic so far. I'm having so much fun writing it and I can't wait to share more of it with you all. <3


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